undertaken on a lacquer disc of arthur smith's "guitar boogie" from the 1940's; and american composer roy harris' "duo for cello and piano" from the 1970's. but a tremendous amount of material has been lost, even historic recordings by the likes of george gershwin, frank sinatra, and judy garland. the library was mandated by congress to develop a new audio recording preservation strategy, and brought out a plan earlier this year. among its goals: create a publicly accessible national directory of collections; develop a coordinated collections policy, including a strategy to collect, catalogue, and preserve recordings; construct storage facilities for long-term preservation; and simplify and clarify disparate copyright laws governing historical recordings. it's not an easy task, says the librarian of congress, james billington, but it's a necessary one. >> yeah, there are all kinds of obscure places where things have been preserved, sometimes in people's attics, sometimes in depositories that no longer exist or have changed ownership. its detective work to reassembling what the original product w